Kent Bush: Gingrich could save some dignity by dropping out

Thursday

Mar 29, 2012 at 12:01 AMMar 29, 2012 at 8:10 AM

Remember when Newt Gingrich was the hot, new thing? Not in 1974 and 1976, when he was losing congressional races in Georgia. Not even in 1978, when he finally won that seat. Not even in 1994, when he became the first Republican Speaker of the House in 40 years.

Kent Bush

Remember when Newt Gingrich was the hot, new thing?

Not in 1974 and 1976, when he was losing congressional races in Georgia. Not even in 1978, when he finally won that seat. Not even in 1994, when he became the first Republican Speaker of the House in 40 years.

Newt was hot recently. Of course, so were Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain. It wasn’t that long ago that pundits were debating whether Cain would be willing to serve as Perry’s vice president. Time flies when you’re running for president.

How is Gingrich different? He is still running, even though his chances aren’t much better than those mentioned above. Other than hubris and increased book sales, I can’t imagine why he is still running. But he is.

Gingrich won the South Carolina primary. He also won his home state of Georgia just this month. He came in second to Rick Santorum in Mississippi and Alabama. But more often than not, he has placed fourth or worse behind Mitt Romney, Santorum and Ron Paul.

His money is drying up. He has laid-off a third of his campaign staff and limited his personal appearances. Voters have clearly indicated that this is a two-person race.

Paul and Gingrich are merely making it more difficult for Romney to get the requisite 1,144 delegates he needs to seal the GOP nomination. It is a formality rather than a contest. But Gingrich has vowed to press on.

“For some reason, everybody in this establishment is chanting that Santorum and I should quit. Well, you know, Romney has to earn this. It’s not going to be given to him, and we have every right to run,” Gingrich said on WTOP radio in Washington, D.C. “I find it fascinating –– none of you guys would call a football team or basketball team and say, ‘Gee, why don’t you drop out?’ You say, OK, there’s a season, let’s play the season out, let’s see what happens.”

That is because a football team is not damaging its opponent by losing to them every week. But the longer Gingrich stays in the race taking pot shots at the front-runners and forcing them to waste campaign funds on primaries –– that are only serving to demonstrate Romney’s weakness in the South and other conservative strongholds and Santorum’s lack of discipline when it comes to staying on message –– the easier it gets for President Barack Obama to win re-election in November.

A recent poll showed Obama with a huge polling lead in Florida over both Romney and Santorum. The longer this primary race goes on and the more divisive it becomes, the more difficult it will be for the Republican challenger in the general election.

Gingrich should abandon his desire to hang around for the convention in June. He is only serving as a speed bump for Romney and helping the Democrats make a better case against him. Gingrich will not be a running mate and won’t be named to any cabinets –– at least until his pet project moon colony is established, at which time he might be named ruler of Moonlandia.

Back on Earth, he should stick to selling his books and charging $50 for every photo taken with him.

The White House is not in his future. But he could save some dignity and good will if he would do the right thing and give his party’s real candidates a chance in November.